e of the most
disagreeable of Shakespeare's plays. But no one can deny its power.

Here, as in _All's Well That Ends Well_, we have one beautiful
character, that of Isabella, like a light shining in corruption. Here,
too, the wronged Mariana, in order to win back the faithless Angelo, is
forced to resort to the same device to which Helena had to stoop. But
this play is darker and more savage than its predecessor. Angelo, as a
governor, sentencing men to death for the very sin which he as a
private man is trying to commit, is contemptible on a huger {177} and
more devilish scale than Bertram. Lucio, if not more base than
Parolles, is at least more malignant. And Claudio, attempting to save
his life by his sister's shame, is an incarnation of the healthy animal
joy of life almost wholly divested of the ideals of manhood. In a way,
the play ends happily; but it is about as cheerful as the red gleam of
sunset which shoots athwart a retreating thunderstorm.

+Date+.--The play was first published in the Folio of 1623. It is
generally believed, however, that it was written about 1603. In the
first place, the verse tests and general character of the play seem to
fit that date; secondly, there are two passages, I, i, 68-73 and II,
iv, 27-30, which are usually interpreted as allusions to the attitude
of James I toward the people after he came to the throne in 1603; and,
thirdly, there are many turns of phrase which remind one of _Hamlet_
and which seem to indicate that the two plays were written near
together. Barksted's _Myrrha_ (1607) contains a passage apparently
borrowed from this comedy, which helps in determining the latest
possible date of composition.

+Sources+.--Shakespeare borrowed his material from a writer named
George Whetstone, who in 1578 printed a play, _Promos and Cassandra_,
containing most of the story of _Measure for Measure_. In 1582 the
same author published a prose version of the story in his _Heptameron
of Civil Discourses_. Whetstone in turn borrowed his material, which
came originally from the _Hecatommithi_ of Giraldi Cinthio.
Shakespeare ennobled the underlying thought as far as he could, and
added the character of Mariana.

+Julius Caesar+.--The interest in _Julius Caesar_ does not focus on any
one person as completely as in the other great tragedies. Like the
chronicle plays which had preceded it, it gives rather a grand panorama
of history than the fate of any particular hero.